Basic question re fuel carried

Comhrá

When an average short-haul flight leaves, say, Dublin for Faro, in the interest of staying as light and thus as economic as possible, does it take just enough fuel for the single journey + holding + alternate airfield, or does it take enough for the return flight in order to save turn-around time?

Do other factors come into play? Cheaper fuel prices in different countries?

Runway lengths, ambient temperatures at take-off? Just curious how all this is worked out.

Would a flight from DUB to LHR refuel after such a short leg or take enough for the return trip?

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Yep you generally always refuel, even on a short flight.

L1011

Tankering for the return or an entire days ops exists in island hopper and other routes where there may be dear or no fuel available; or when there's currency or other problems in buying. Otherwise it's fuel at each turn. Severe irregular ops may change this in either direction

smurfjed

Fuel cost differential plays a big part in this decision as doest the cost of carrying that extra fuel. In this part of the world its common to see aircraft dispatched to land at maximum landing weight regardless of the sector length, even if this results in paying for deicing in the middle of the summer

adam88

smurfjed wrote: »

Fuel cost differential plays a big part in this decision as doest the cost of carrying that extra fuel. In this part of the world its common to see aircraft dispatched to land at maximum landing weight regardless of the sector length, even if this results in paying for deicing in the middle of the summer

Stupid question but why deicing

L1011

Cold fuel in the wings making it possible for ice formation. It's cold at cruise altitude even in summer

JCX BXC

Knock ATC often ask aircraft will they need fuel on arrival, and it's not uncommon to hear either Ryanair, Aer Lingus or Flybe saying no.

billy few mates

A lot of operators will have some clever people in Ops who will be able to work out the economics of tankering vs uplifting and decide which is the more economical option for any given route. As well as price they also consider factors like contamination and possible water content and SG of the fuel depending on the time of day, the ambient temperature, and the mode of delivery.
Take on fuel in +35C temperatures, in the middle of the day, from a ropey old bowser for example and your going to have FQIS problems for the next few days or the engineers are going to be busy draining gallons of fuel that night to get the water out of the tanks. In hot weather it's better to leave the tanks full of fuel, especially if the aircraft is sitting around....

Fred Swanson

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You could fuel about 5 tonnes of fuel in about 7 minutes which would be sufficient for a 2 hour flight (short haul).

Fred Swanson

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It has capacity for about 20 tonnes of fuel. So if you were to fully fuel it, it would take nearly half an hour. If the tanks were empty to begin with. :-)